Limiting Chain Stores in our neighborhoods

Should chain stores be required to fit in with the character of a neighborhood, and should their proliferation be capped? Those are some of the crazy ideas being tossed in my mind. But, WOW these are some drastic measures for a capitalist society. We need to start working toward formulating a retail zoning plan for the neighborhoods that would prevent chain stores from displacing local businesses and generally keep them from swamping the area more than they already have. Will local politicians' endorse the plan? It's way too early to tell, but we may be approaching the day when enjoying a gingerbread latte, Starbucks latte, while strolling Rainbow St. could be considered a dangerous political high-wire act.

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Noise Pollution in Amman city

It's 6:00am and I just woke up, well, not because I slept enough or I set up my personal alarm to get up early to my 9:00 work but because I woke up on the neighborhood alarm that comes from the construction noise in my street. This is becoming contagious that I rarely sleep these days the way I want, with peace and calm. It's not a healthy living to start your week like this nervous and stressed out.

The noise comes from different sources but the most annoying to me is the construction work. In my neighborhood they finished last month a one year project of a reconstructed Villa to 4 floors residential project a block from my house, then another one just finished, with the same story, a villa reconstructed to 4 floors residential project. Only last month they destroyed an old 3 floors building in my block and now it's under construction. The noise and dust that comes from these projects are over the ordinary level that a human can handle.

Moreover, noise will continue after finishing these projects since the population density will increase.

Is construction more important than us Humans!

The biggest noise that is polluting my neighborhood is the one that comes from the Jordan gate towers which have 24 hour shifts, apparently to meet their deadlines. Even I live about 700 meters away and I still hear the noisy hammers that never stops.

Construction is not not the only source of pollution. Here is the school bus honking at 6:10am to pick up the school kids. Then later the home gas distributor will drive by with his annoying boring melody with it's high volume pitch, then later the famous truck will shout: elly 3endo talagat, ghasalat, nashafat 3ate2a lalbea3 ( Who have an old washer, dryer, refrigerator for sale?)And don't forget the garbage tanks.

Any solution is beyond my handle. Maybe, I move to a different neighborhood, but which neighborhood if the same construction noise pollution happens everywhere? or might happen?

Don't we need to start thinking about controlling noise and construction pollution? To set up: Amman city noise code?

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Amman City Streets

Photo by Emad Salameh

Amman is a city best enjoyed on foot, yet we plan our streets for cars.

Amman City's streets are the soul of its neighborhoods and the pathways to it’s destinations. For generations, Jordanians and visitors have strolled, shopped and socialized on sidewalks and street corners. Pedestrian friendly streets are the city's most fundamental assets.

Unfortunately, we aren't making the most of these assets. Instead, our streets are being managed almost entirely for traffic flow, with neighborhoods and business districts buckling under increasing amounts of dangerous car and truck traffic. If we continue planning our streets for cars and traffic, we will get more cars and traffic; conversely, if we start planning our cities for people and places, we will get more people and places.

Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces and resources that need to be wisely allocated. We need to start thinking about a campaign building the movement to re-imagine our streets as lively public places.